lifeasmission

Reaching

May 17, 2006

 I am taking an online class this quarter with Dr. Ray Anderson entitled, “Theology of Community and Ministry.” It is his version of Systematic Theology III (Ecclesiology and Eschatology). Dr. Anderson is a noted practical theologian and from what I understand, the inventor and creation of the D.Min degree. I love the way he teaches. He also teaches his own versions of Systematic Theology I and II. Whereas Sys. I is typically, “Theology and Anthropology,” and Sys. II is typically, “Christology and Soteriology,” his are entitled, “Theological Anthropology and the Revelation of God” and “Incarnation and the Healing of Persons” respectively. He is totally concerned that our theological reflection and insight be joined with ministry and practice. Not only does he lecture in a way which begs this kind of reflection, the questions he assigns for homework and exams do the same. I thought I would post the most recent journal entry I needed to do for his class as an example. Feel free to respond to it or anything else. Peace.

Question:

For several years, close friends of yours have been active members of a “seeker sensitive” church, hosting outreach events in their home as well as playing a leadership role in the church. They recently expressed dissatisfaction to you, however, over some activities in which their church had sought to reach “the world” on its own turf. These included videos in a worship service and a women’s fashion show, both, according to your friends, in questionable taste. “Of course, we must reach out to the world,” one of them told you, “but I’m beginning to think we’ve gone a little overboard. What are we calling people to? What about holiness? I need to be fed, too!” How might you use the themes of our study this week to help your friends to determine what a proper balance in their church might look like?

My Response:

We must begin by defining what we mean by “reach.” Many seeker-sensitive churches seem to define reaching as drawing the biggest crowd possible to hear (and hopefully respond to) the message of the gospel. If people hear and affirm their belief in this message, usually stated in propositional forms, then we consider them “reached.”  If this is what it means to reach people then we ought to be quite alright with using whatever means necessary to draw a crowd.

But this does not seem to correspond well with the way in which Jesus (or Paul or the early church for that matter) “reached” people. We are told that Jesus emptied himself and became a servant on behalf of others. His mission and message were marked by healing, forgiveness, and the constituting of a particular kind of community, the kind which would joyfully live distinctively under the reign of God and would likewise see itself crucified for the sake of the world.

Within the Church, there is perhaps no balance to be aspired to in terms of feeding the congregation and reaching the lost. Rather, it seems to be the case that the Church is that peculiar community whose very food and sustenance is siding with God in his mission to the world. He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” (Jn. 4:32)

Posted in: bible, church, culture, Fuller Seminary, Jesus, Paul, theology